Author: Christian Rätsch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594776628
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 3143

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Book Description
The most comprehensive guide to the botany, history, distribution, and cultivation of all known psychoactive plants • Examines 414 psychoactive plants and related substances • Explores how using psychoactive plants in a culturally sanctioned context can produce important insights into the nature of reality • Contains 797 color photographs and 645 black-and-white illustrations In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful plants--those known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness--have traditionally been regarded as sacred. In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants Christian Rätsch details the botany, history, distribution, cultivation, and preparation and dosage of more than 400 psychoactive plants. He discusses their ritual and medicinal usage, cultural artifacts made from these plants, and works of art that either represent or have been inspired by them. The author begins with 168 of the most well-known psychoactives--such as cannabis, datura, and papaver--then presents 133 lesser known substances as well as additional plants known as “legal highs,” plants known only from mythological contexts and literature, and plant products that include substances such as ayahuasca, incense, and soma. The text is lavishly illustrated with 797 color photographs--many of which are from the author’s extensive fieldwork around the world--showing the people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world’s sacred psychoactives.

Author: Grubber
Publisher: Ronin Publishing
ISBN: 1579510949
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
Techniques for cultivation and harvesting hallucinogenic and psychoactive plants. Written in careful detail by an expert horticulturist. This hard to obtain cult classic is once again available. Glossary.

Author: Peter Stafford
Publisher: Ronin Publishing
ISBN: 1579511694
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
Traces the history of the use of hallucinogenic drugs and discusses the psychological and physical effects of LSD, marijuana, mescaline, and other drugs.

Author: Christian Rätsch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594776598
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

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Book Description
A comprehensive survey of the therapeutic, historical, and cultural uses of cannabis in traditions around the world. • The most complete visual record of cannabis culture ever published. • Christian Ratsch is one of the world's foremost ethnopharmacologists and is the current president of the German Society for Ethnomedicine. Marijuana Medicine explores the role of hemp in medicinal systems spanning the globe. Cannabis has accompanied the development of human culture from its very beginnings and can be found in the healing traditions of cultures throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Even today it is an important part of many Asian healing traditions: in Ayurveda cannabis is praised for its tonic and aphrodisiac qualities and in traditional Chinese medicine it is cited as a superb antidepressant. It also remains a significant part of the healing and visionary traditions of Latin American curanderos and Brazilian, Nepalese, and Indian folk medicine. Modern research has confirmed the effectiveness of marijuana's application in treating such diseases as asthma and glaucoma. Christian Ratsch profiles the medicinal, historical, and cultural uses of cannabis in each of these societies and medical systems, providing remedies and recipes for those interested in how cannabis can be used to treat specific conditions.

Author: Christian Rätsch
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620552701
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 1260

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Book Description
The most comprehensive guide to the botany, pharmacology, cultural, ritual, and personal use of erotically stimulating substances from antiquity to the present day • Details the use, preparation, and dosage of more than 400 plant, animal, mineral, and synthetic substances, both common and exotic, as well as their botany, science, and legal status • Explores the historical and present use of aphrodisiacs and their role in sexual practices, culture, and art • Richly illustrated throughout with more than 800 color photographs The culmination of more than 30 years of cultural, anthropological, and scientific research, this encyclopedia examines the botany, pharmacology, history, preparation, dosage, and practical use of more than 400 erotically stimulating substances from antiquity to the present day. From plants and animals that enhance fertility and virility, like celery, snails, or oysters, to substances that induce arousal, like ephedra, opium, or cannabis, the encyclopedia is richly illustrated with more than 800 color photographs--many of which are from the authors’ extensive fieldwork around the world. Exploring individual, medicinal, and ritual use through historic and contemporary artwork, personal accounts, and literature as well as ayurvedic, tantric, shamanic, and European folklore practices and recent pharmacological research, the authors look at the revolving cycle of acceptance and condemnation of aphrodisiacs, the qualities that incur the label of “aphrodisiac,” the role of mind and setting, and the different ways aphrodisiacs stimulate desire--either physically, through the senses and vital organs, or mentally, through heightened awareness and altered consciousness. This comprehensive guide reveals these “remedies of the love goddess” as holy remedies whose proper use can help reestablish harmony with oneself, one’s partner, and the universe.

Author: Donald G. Barceloux
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118106059
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1080

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Book Description
This book provides a broad reference covering important drugs of abuse including amphetamines, opiates, and steroids. It also covers psychoactive plants such as caffeine, peyote, and psilocybin. It provides chemical structures, analytical methods, clinical features, and treatments of these drugs of abuse, serving as a highly useful, in-depth supplement to a general medical toxicology book. The style allows for the easy application of the contents to searchable databases and other electronic products, making this an essential resource for practitioners in medical toxicology, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, pharmaceuticals, environmental organizations, pathology, and related fields.

Author: Richard Evans Schultes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781667135809
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
What are hallucinogenic plants? How do they affect mind and body? Who uses them - and why? This unique Golden Guide surveys the role of psychoactive plants in primitive and civilized societies from early times to the present. The first nontechnical guide to both the cultural significance and physiological effects of hallucinogens, HALLUCINOGENIC PLANTS will fascinate general readers and students of anthropology and history as well as botanists and other specialists. All of the wild and cultivated species considered are illustrated in brilliant full color. A Brilliant accompaniment to R G Wasson's Soma Divine Mushroom of Immortality and R G Wasson's Wondrous Mushroom.

Author: Cody Johnson
Publisher: Fair Winds Press
ISBN: 1631594281
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
“Cody Johnson beautifully balances historical knowledge with cutting-edge science to produce a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read which paints a holistic picture of the risks and benefits of psychedelic use in modern day medicine and culture.” —Rick Doblin, PhD, Founder and Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Magic Medicine explores the fascinating history of psychedelic substances and provides a contemporary update about their growing inclusion in modern medicine, science, and culture. Each chapter dives into the rich history of a single plant or compound and explores its therapeutic and spiritual uses in cultures near and far. Firsthand quotes allow glimmers of psychedelic light throughout. Learn all about: Classical psychedelics, including 2C-B, ayahuasca, LSD, and peyote The empathogenic psychedelics MDA and MDMA Dissociative psychedelics, including DXM, ketamine, and salvia Unique psychedelics, including cannabis, DiPT, and even fish and sea sponges The history of psychedelic plants and substances is full of colorful facts and stories, and intriguing questions. Did US Army Intelligence really use LSD as an enhanced military interrogation technique? How is DiPT able to make a familiar tune sound utterly foreign? Can MDMA (Ecstasy) help people overcome traumatic experiences? Many psychedelic plants and substances have a long history of being incorporated into various healing traditions—such as cannabis and opium in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Science is beginning to research what traditional cultures have told us for years: psychedelics have transformative healing properties. Anyone who has ever wondered about psychedelics—from complete neophytes to veteran trippers, seekers and sages to skeptics and scientists, therapists and patients to green thumbs and armchair anthropologists—will find something in this engrossing and beautifully designed book.

Author: Claudia Müller-Ebeling
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 159477661X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
An in-depth investigation of traditional European folk medicine and the healing arts of witches • Explores the outlawed “alternative” medicine of witches suppressed by the state and the Church and how these plants can be used today • Reveals that female shamanic medicine can be found in cultures all over the world • Illustrated with color and black-and-white art reproductions dating back to the 16th century Witch medicine is wild medicine. It does more than make one healthy, it creates lust and knowledge, ecstasy and mythological insight. In Witchcraft Medicine the authors take the reader on a journey that examines the women who mix the potions and become the healers; the legacy of Hecate; the demonization of nature’s healing powers and sensuousness; the sorceress as shaman; and the plants associated with witches and devils. They explore important seasonal festivals and the plants associated with them, such as wolf’s claw and calendula as herbs of the solstice and alder as an herb of the time of the dead--Samhain or Halloween. They also look at the history of forbidden medicine from the Inquisition to current drug laws, with an eye toward how the sacred plants of our forebears can be used once again.

Author: Richard Evans Schultes
Publisher: Healing Arts Press
ISBN: 9780892819799
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
World-renowned anthropologist and ethnopharmacologist Christian Ratsch provides the latest scientific updates to this classic work on psychoactive flora by two eminent researchers. • Numerous new and rare color photographs complement the completely revised and updated text. • Explores the uses of hallucinogenic plants in shamanic rituals throughout the world. • Cross-referenced by plant, illness, preparation, season of collection, and chemical constituents. Three scientific titans join forces to completely revise the classic text on the ritual uses of psychoactive plants. They provide a fascinating testimony of these "plants of the gods," tracing their uses throughout the world and their significance in shaping culture and history. In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred. The authors detail the uses of hallucinogens in sacred shamanic rites while providing lucid explanations of the biochemistry of these plants and the cultural prayers, songs, and dances associated with them. The text is lavishly illustrated with 400 rare photographs of plants, people, ceremonies, and art related to the ritual use of the world's sacred psychoactive flora.